The revolutionary program of the working class, as presented during the 1941 trial of leaders of the Minneapolis labor movement and the Socialist Workers Party for “seditious conspiracy.” Includes Cannon’s answer to ultraleft critics of the defendants, drawing lessons from the working-class movement from Marx and Engels to the October Revolution and beyond.

"Socialism on Trial is a work written more than half a century ago, but it shows many economic and political similarities to current day America. […] Cannon knew that it wasn’t simply socialism on trial, but the precious commodity of free speech."—Foreword Reviews